“Got a new dress everyone said it’s too good!
I should be happy I know I would!
But little did they know t’was the old one!
Just told em it’s new for fun!”
Remember the tale of the Emperor’s new clothes!? It was a hilarious tale in which you had all the sympathy for the crooks who made a fool of the vain!
The story was inspired by a Spanish tale.
Or was it!?
In the In the novel ‘The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World’ by William Dalrymple; the author tells about a similar tale but Indian this time!
read on!
Clothes are the major draw for anyone! many would spend so much to cover themselves! Fashion shows and parades are there for new designs and to show you ways to cover you!
Being the son of an army officer, I have always been taught to dress decently and not for show! Even stepping out of the house just for a while you will not find me in casual dress! But (expected!), that of course does not mean that you need costly clothes!
Even now one of my best shirts which looks and feels so rich and good and is wrinkle free for more than ten years now was less than 500 INR while the super costly ones lie in a corner gathering dust! Those were of course the ones gifted by my wife since I would never spend too much money on clothes! If it was a gadget then of course there is no limit!
Even socially you have some rules! If you are rich then you do wear rich, branded and shiny clothes! While if you are super rich then you wear simple but decent clothes!
Then again, you will never find a girl who would say the she has enough clothes even when her clothes wardrobe is full! It is an argument you can never win! It is always, “I do not have any clothes to wear!”
The more exclusive the clothes, the better the deal apparently! Which is whey the story of the emperor’s clothes is so famous!
The tale as we all have read or seen goes like this; There was an an emperor who used to have an obsession with fancy new clothes, and used to spend lavishly on them, at the expense of his public and ignore the other matters of the rule or the state!
One day, two con-men visit the emperor’s capital.
Posing as weavers, they offer to supply him with magnificent clothes that are invisible to those who are incompetent or stupid. The gullible emperor hires them, and they set up looms and pretend to go to work.
A succession of officials, starting with the emperor’s wise and competent minister, and then ending with the emperor himself, visit them to check their progress. Each sees that the looms are empty but everyone pretends to see the clothes and weave more bigger stories about them since they do not want to left out or called a ‘fool’!
Finally, the weavers report that the emperor’s suit is finished. They acts as if dressing him and he sets off in a procession before the whole city!
The townsfolk uncomfortably go along with the pretense, not wanting to appear inept or stupid, until a child blurts out that the emperor is wearing nothing at all!
The people then realize that everyone has been fooled. In various versions the King either runs away embarrassed or still continuous in vain!
The fate of the con-men is not revealed in the initial stories though in later versions they are shown to have escaped with the payment!
The tale was first written by Andersen and his tale is based on a 1335 story from the Libro de los ejemplos (or El Conde Lucanor), a medieval Spanish collection of fifty-one cautionary tales with various sources such as Aesop and other classical writers and Persian folktales, by Juan Manuel, Prince of Villena.
Andersen did not know the Spanish original but read the tale in a German translation titled “So ist der Lauf der Welt” (“That’s the way of the world”)!
Now the Indian version as mentioned by William appears in the Līlāvatīsāra by Jinaratna (1283), a summary of a now-lost anthology of fables, the Nirvāṇalīlāvatī by Jineśvara (1052)!
In this story, the dishonest merchant Dhana from Hastināpura swindles the king of Śrāvastī by offering to weave a supernatural garment that cannot be seen or touched by any person of illegitimate birth.
When the king is supposedly wearing the garment, his whole court pretends to admire it. The king is then paraded about his city to show off the garment; when the common folk ask him if he has become a naked ascetic, he realizes the deception, but the swindler has already fled!
Now of course these stories may or may not be true or real but the message what they try to convey is the essence of these stories!
The message here is that it is best to trust oneself and be honest; Speak up for the truth and what is right. Without honesty, people often end up looking very foolish! But of course see the time and place to show your honesty! Now speaking of emperors, you must recognize the emperor or King Ornithologist!
If you are a bird watcher or even a passing photographer you would have surely read his book!
Now put on your night ‘clothes’ and sleep!
Shubh Ratri!
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